Whole Foods Deploys Harvester to Reduce Food Waste

Whole Foods Market will deploy technology that converts food scraps into organic fertilizer for sale to farmers and consumers.

The WISErg Harvester unit will be installed at Whole Foods Market Bellevue in Washington State in May.

The Harvester unit will enable the Bellevue store to reduce food waste sustainably, and provide data reports to better manage perishable inventory, the companies said. In addition to recycling food scraps, reducing waste and decreasing shrinkage, Whole Foods Market Bellevue will sell WISErganic organic liquid fertilizer.

The Harvester identifies the sources of waste and also provides a community-friendly solution that minimizes odor and noise commonly associated with compost removal services. The Harvester captures data about the sources of food scraps and environmental conditions that grocers analyze to make more informed inventory management decisions.

The Harvester is scalable and can address the food scrap volumes of grocers of all sizes. WISErg said in addition to Whole Foods Market, the Harvester is currently deployed at a number of regional independent grocers in Washington State.